


Maybe this time

by Veto_power_over_clocks



Category: The Gentlemen (2019)
Genre: But seriously dude you have no right to it, Canon Compliant, Gen, Jealousy, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25722025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veto_power_over_clocks/pseuds/Veto_power_over_clocks
Summary: Ray accepted long ago that he’d never be one of Fortuna’s favorite children, which is why he must always make sure that every detail has been taken into consideration before acting. He should have paid closer attention to the list of security guards for tonight’s event.A hand rests on his elbow, touch light and undemanding, and then Mary’s lips are on his ear so she can whisper, “Is that him?”He knows exactly who she's looking at. Without taking his eyes off him, Ray nods.Mary rests her forehead on his shoulder, clicks her tongue and sympathetically says, “I guess you're not outwitting the past tonight.”
Relationships: Coach/Raymond Smith
Comments: 10
Kudos: 139





	Maybe this time

**Author's Note:**

> The biggest shout out to Auri, who had to deal with me plotting this thing in her DMs and then had to suggest names for Coach because I hate picking names for canon characters (I had to write her suggestions in little pieces of paper, put them in a bag and grab one at random; I can't deal with the responsibility of choosing a name for somebody else's character). Also, thank you for your interest in the idea; I know I wouldn't have written this if you hadn't been enthusiastic about it.

The offer looked honest; one night of working security at some elegant cocktail party, good pay, and the right to eat as much of the leftovers as they wanted once it was over.

“And there are always lots of those,” the Tambourine had said. “It’s the sort of people that worries too much about their weight to actually eat something.”

The fact that it was the Tambourine that brought the offer is what finally decided him to take it: she wouldn’t do anything to put Mal even close to the wrong side of the law.

That’s how Coach and a bunch of his fighters found themselves in suits, with earpieces, and patrolling a mansion as various people in fancy clothes and highly decorated masks played pretend for one night.

Who throws a masquerade ball for Halloween? Bored Lords, apparently. Bored Lords and Dames with no imagination whatsoever; Coach has lost count of the butterfly-themed outfits he's seen in the last hour. Or the foxes. If anything, everyone's saying too much about who they want to be instead of successfully hiding themselves.

It’s good money, at least, and relatively easy. Nobody expects any actual trouble, because this event is invitation only, and the only reason they have security is to keep people from wandering where they shouldn't, and at some point Coach stops stressing over which of his boys is doing what and allows himself to simply exist.

Which is, of course, when the universe decides that Finnian has been haunted by memories and what-ifs for long enough and it’s time for him to see Raymond Smith again.

Maybe Finnian had been too hard on the Lords earlier; at least they'd bothered to dress up, while Ray is wearing a normal, black three-piece suit and nothing to cover his face with, which means Finnian can't pretend not to recognize him when their eyes meet. He wonders if any of his regrets show on his face. He hopes that the fact that he still wants Ray doesn’t show. He knows he won't be able to recover his composure in time.

Ray stills when he sees him, studies him like he's trying to make sure that he’s not mistaking Finnian for another man with a badly kept beard, white hair at his temples, and glasses. Finnian tilts his head in acknowledgement and Ray only stands there, looking at him with what seems to be a mixture of anxiousness and wonder that makes Finnian think that, maybe, all the months he spent considering possibilities and potential weren’t a mistake.

And then, a woman leans in to whisper something in Ray's ear and Finnian remembers where he is, who he is, and that the reason everything was left as a maybe was that he decided not to take the risk when Ray offered him a chance.

To make matters worse, Ray and his companion decide to approach him. Or, well, judging by Ray’s face, it was his companion’s idea; he looks like he wants to turn around and leave. There’s none of the earlier wonder left on his expression, only obvious reluctance to get closer. To be fair, Finnian _did_ reject him, and bruised egos always take a while to heal.

The woman, meanwhile, is smiling far too widely for Finnian’s liking. She’s dressed as extravagantly as the rest of the party’s attendees, but while most people had aimed towards being alluring, a bunch of flowers trying to catch the eye in the middle of a garden, her look is slightly unsettling. She isn’t a butterfly. She isn’t a fox. She’s wearing a long black dress that wraps itself around her chest in a way that reminds Finnian of mummies in museums, with a wide skirt that reaches the floor, so that you can’t see her feet move as she walks and creates the effect that she’s gliding. The fabric is decorated with uneven lines of red beads that follow varied vertical paths, and after a moment Finnian realizes that they’re meant to resemble blood running down her clothes. She’s wearing long black gloves, her skin is pale and the top half of her face is covered by a white mask, on which someone went through the trouble of painting tears of blood. The woman’s black curls are piled high up on the back of her head, and her lips are painted red.

If her costume says as much about her as the costumes of all the people around them, perhaps Finnian would do well to invent an excuse and leave before she and Ray reach him.

The illusion of danger is destroyed when she stands in front of him and says, “Buona sera,” smiling so happily that it momentarily throws Finnian off balance, because such warmth couldn’t possibly come from the walking corpse in front of him. Of course, from up close it’s obvious that her pallor is the product of makeup, and there’s a glint in her eyes and a twitch on the corner of her mouth that speak of cleverness and mischief, but not malice.

“Good evening,” Finnian says after a moment, turning from the woman to Ray, who is giving them both an anxious look.

“Hello,” Ray says, looking at Finnian in the eye and seeming slightly apologetic. “It’s been a while.” He blinks quickly a couple of times and asks, “How have you been?”

It’s a polite, normal question. It doesn’t mean Ray actually cares about the answer. At least there’s nothing hostile in his tone.

“I’ve been good, thanks for asking,” Finnian says.

Ray nods and studies him for a second. Finnian can’t imagine what he’s looking for.

“Your boys?”

“Well-behaved.” Ray smiles at that, a small thing that brings up the corner of his mouth and that tells Finnian that, yes, he’s never forgetting how it was that they met in the first place. It’s almost fond, like he no longer minds the headache that the boys gave him. “They’re here tonight as well. Working.”

The woman clears her throat and Ray startles, turning to her quickly. Finnian had almost forgotten about her, focused as he was on trying to figure out whether or not Ray resented him.

“Non mi presenterai al tuo ragazzo, Ray?” Finnian thinks she sounds teasing, and the momentary tensing of Ray’s jaw tells Finnian that she said something he didn’t like.

“Scusi,” Ray says, bowing his head in what seems to be an apologetic gesture that doesn’t match the unimpressed look he’s giving her when he raises his head again. He gestures at the woman. “This is Maddalena. A friend.”

Maddalena extends a gloved hand towards Finnian, who takes it between his own and doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do next. Shake it? Kiss her knuckles? Hold it for a moment?

“Piacere,” Maddalena says, and saves him the trouble of deciding by quickly shaking his hand and letting go of him. She rests her hand on Ray’s shoulder, and Finnian tries not to focus on that, reminds himself that all he can claim for himself is the moment of Ray’s attention he had long ago, and that he has no right to complain about how this woman now seems to have what Finnian rejected.

Ray gestures at Finnian and introduces him to Maddalena as, “Un amico.” He turns towards Finnian and says, “She doesn’t speak English.”

“I see.”

Ray stands there, watching Finnian, and Finnian would have gladly stayed there figuring out how to talk to Ray if Benny hadn’t showed up in that moment.

“Coach, we have a small situation in the kitchen,” he says quietly, and then seems to notice that Finnian hadn’t been alone. He turns towards Ray and Maddalena, narrows his eyes at the former and smiles at the latter, and Ray excuses himself and walks away, with Maddalena hanging from his arm and unsubtly turning around every few steps to look at Finnian.

The small situation in the kitchen ends up being a lost knife. Finnian hopes it’s only a case of disorganization and not that someone’s planning to go stab-happy tonight.

“That was the guy from the Mickey Pearson situation, wasn’t he?” Benny says as they leave the kitchen and return to their places at the hall, where an actual band has started playing, adding a new level of pretentiousness to the evening. Some couples have started dancing.

“Yes, that was him.”

“What is he doing here?” Benny frowns. “He doesn’t look like he’s having fun.” To prove his point, Benny gestures towards the dance floor, where Ray’s unenthusiastically leading Maddalena through a waltz. She doesn’t seem to mind how stiff he is, judging by her laughter and the way she leans back to look at Ray as she speaks. Her thumb is drawing circles on Ray’s shoulder and Finnian reminds himself for the umpteenth time tonight that he gave up the right to have an opinion on Ray’s life long ago. “That’s no way to treat a girl,” Benny says, judging, when Ray gives Maddalena an annoyed look after she has leaned in to whisper something in his ear. “She’ll end up bored of him.”

Finnian could point out that Ray has one of those faces that make people forgive them a lot of stuff just to get the chance to kiss them later, but that’s not something he’s willing to admit to Benny.

“She seems to be a woman, Benny, not a girl. I’m sure she knows what she’s doing,” Finnian says, leaving Benny behind and feeling thankful that his own spot in the room makes it impossible for him to get a clear look at the dance floor.

* * *

He gets a couple of blissfully Ray-free hours until he has to inspect the garden. He walks around the house slowly, interrupts a couple that was getting up to things among the bushes that the poor bushes hadn't been meant to deal with, and generally enjoys the chance to breathe some fresh air when he catches sight of a couple sitting on a bench.

When Coach gets closer, he recognizes the black dress and becomes aware that the occupants of the bench are Ray and Maddalena, who are too busy whispering to each other to notice Coach's approach. One of Maddalena’s arms is looped with one of Ray's, her very red lips close to his ear and turned upwards in a smile, and what makes Finnian want to kick himself is how envious he is that whatever it is that she's saying is making Ray smile.

Finnian was the one that said he didn't want anything to do with Ray after the whole affair with Pearson was settled. When he said goodbye he knew that Ray would get over him, that his passing interest in Finnian would be forgotten as soon as somebody else came along. It only hurts because Finnian was unable to stop thinking about Ray, when he knew perfectly well that the best he could do would be to exile him from his mind.

Eventually, they notice his presence, and Maddalena even _waves_ at him as he walks the last few steps towards the bench.

"Just the person I needed," Ray says, looking at Coach with a small smile on his face, his good mood from his conversation with Maddalena clearly not ruined by Coach's presence.

"You want my help?" Coach says, looking from Ray to Maddalena.

"Yes." Ray nods and points at Maddalena. "This woman is merciless and won't accept that I've had enough dancing for tonight. Do you think any of your boys might be willing to dance with her so I can recover?"

The corner of Coach's mind that’s far too used to dealing with a bunch of twenty-somethings that have too much energy and enthusiasm immediately tries to figure out if there was any sort of innuendo in that sentence. The rest of his mind, the rational part that has allowed him to survive for forty-four years in this world, points out that Maddalena doesn’t have a hair out of place, that her makeup isn’t smudged, and that Ray doesn’t look like he did anything more scandalous than talking and dancing tonight. Finnian has seen what Ray looks like after he’s been kissed, and the picture in his mind doesn’t match the calm, collected man in front of him. He's certain that he wouldn't look like this either if he'd been doing anything more inappropriate.

“I don’t think I’m allowed to take a guard out of his post to make him dance.” Despite saying that, Coach is already thinking who might be the best pick for the task. Probably Benny, because he’s already aware of Ray’s presence here, so that saves Coach the job of informing him of that.

“If anybody tries to give you trouble over it, tell them it was a favor for me.” Ray smiles. Or, well, his lips curve upwards and his teeth are visible. “That should shut them up.”

Of course.

“Give me a moment,” Coach says.

Yes, Benny’s the easiest solution.

“So he’s going to leave his date alone and send her to dance with some random man she’s never seen before?” Benny says when Coach explains Ray’s request to him.

Coach shrugs. “Yes.”

“His date who doesn’t speak English and who probably depends on him to know what’s going on around her,” Benny adds, flatly.

“Yes.”

Benny looks unimpressed, and he makes no effort to hide his judgment when they return to the bench where Maddalena and Ray are waiting. As soon as they reach them, Maddalena stands up and extends a hand towards Benny, saying, “Ciao, sono Maddalena.” She smiles, the same dazzling warmth from earlier now fully focused on Benny, who takes her hand and holds it between his own like it’s made of glass. “Come si chiama Lei?”

Coach can’t deny that he’s impressed by this woman’s ability to render a man speechless while looking like a corpse.

“Excuse me?” Benny says.

“She’s asking for your name,” Ray says. When Coach looks at him, he sees Ray pressing his lips tightly, trying and failing to suppress an amused smile.

“Benny.”

“Benny.” With her free hand, Maddalena reaches to brush Benny’s jaw with the back of her fingers. “Piacere.”

Coach can’t believe what he’s seeing. Ray has averted his eyes from the scene. Benny’s frozen on the spot. Maddalena only smiles, blood-red lips pressed together so her teeth won’t show, and then she steps away from Benny and gestures for him to follow her back into the house. She looks back before stepping inside and waves.

Once they’re out of sight, Coach crosses his arms in front of his chest and turns to look accusingly at Ray.

“What are you planning?”

Ray frowns, the very picture of innocence, except that the man doesn’t have a single innocent cell in his body. “What do you mean?”

“Maddalena just melted Benny’s brain with a pretty smile and took him away. Am I supposed to believe you don’t mind your date flirting with someone else?” Coach scoffs. “It’s obviously a plan. Why are you here? Am I getting in trouble because of you?”

Ray lets out a small laugh and looks away from Finnian. “I’m not letting you get in trouble because of me, don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried about myself, I’m worried about Benny being alone with your date.” He really hopes she’s not about to drag Benny into some criminal plot and that she was simply playing some weird game with Ray, something from which the worst that can happen to Benny is that he’ll get a bruised ego.

“She’s harmless.” Ray makes a face, like suggesting that Maddalena could be dangerous is heresy. “Benny will be fine.”

“Why am I unconvinced?”

“Because you don’t think anything good can come from associating with me.” Ray tilts his head slightly and looks up at Coach. He seems almost sad, and it takes Finnian a moment to remind himself that there’s no shame in self-preservation. “I didn’t know you were going to be here tonight. I’m sorry.”

Finnian exhales heavily and puts his hands in his trousers’ pockets.

“What would you have done if you’d known I’d be here? Not come?”

Ray blinks quickly and looks away from Finnian. “I couldn’t have done that, but at least I’d have made sure you didn’t know I was here.”

“Why?” Finnian frowns and moves to stand in front of Ray, who raises his head to look at his face.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ray asks, bemused.

“I don’t see why you’d go to the trouble of making sure I didn’t see you. You’re a guest at a fancy party and you have a date that’s spent the entire night whispering things in your ear. Shouldn’t you want me to see that?” He shouldn’t have said that. He knows exactly how it sounded.

Judging from Ray’s smirk, he heard everything Finnian didn’t say.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re jealous.” Despite the words, he doesn’t sound teasing. What surprises Finnian is that he also doesn’t sound reproaching, or angry. If anything, he sounds regretful. “Even if it was like that between Maddalena and I, trying to rub it in your face would be rather pathetic, don’t you think?”

There’s nothing that Finnian can say to that.

Ray sighs and looks at his watch. “Can you sit with me for a few minutes or do you have to keep walking around the house?”

Instead of answering, Finnian takes the spot that Maddalena had occupied earlier. He thinks about her leaning to whisper in Ray’s ear and closes his eyes.

“For someone that said he’d have avoided me if he could, you’re spending a lot of time with me right now,” Finnian says lightly.

Ray shifts in place, moving slightly away from Finnian.

“The only reason I’d avoid you is because you said you didn’t want to have anything to do with me, remember?” He’s not looking at Finnian; his eyes are fixed on one of the windows on the second floor.

“The _only_ reason?” Finnian asks, skeptical.

“Yes, Finnian.” Ray looks back at him, the same almost-sadness from earlier clear on his face. “But since you want me to spell it out…” He takes a deep breath. “I wouldn’t avoid you just because you rejected me. We’re adults.”

“I did more than reject you,” Finnian points out.

Ray smiles slightly. “It wouldn’t have been polite to mention that.” He checks his watch again and stands up. He looks down at Finnian, opens his mouth and hesitates before saying, “See you later.”

For a second, Finnian considers asking Ray if he’s thought about him in the last few months. He wants to rest a hand on his elbow and tell him that he still believes that being around Ray is a surefire way of finding trouble, but that he can’t help but wonder what sort of trouble it might be, that it terrifies him and thrills him in equal parts, that he wants to kiss Ray and find out if there’s something besides attraction between them.

Ray walks away before Finnian can make up his mind. He gives himself two minutes to get himself together before resuming his inspection of the perimeter.

When he looks up, Coach notices that someone has turned on the lights on one of the second-floor rooms.

* * *

It’s close to midnight when Coach notices a dark figure approaching him quickly, and Maddalena’s lucky that he had enough time to realize it was her and not a potential threat, because everything about her movements made it seem like she was about to tackle him and he was getting ready to defend himself. She comes to a stop in front of him and spends a couple of seconds opening and closing her mouth and making vague gestures with her hands before letting out a sound of frustration and starting to speak quickly. Between the noise of the party and the speed at which Maddalena’s speaking, Coach can’t tell where one word starts and the next one ends but he hears the words ‘Ray’ and ‘non’ often enough to get concerned.

Benny has come to stand next to her and is looking at her bemusedly, so Coach leads them both towards a hallway, where he still doesn’t understand what she’s saying, but at least he can actually hear her speak.

“Benny, what’s going on?” Coach asks, gesturing for Maddalena to be quiet for a moment. Her mouth hangs open in indignation, and both he and Benny wince. He’ll have to ask Ray how to apologize later.

“I don’t know, Coach.” Benny shakes his head. “After a few songs she mentioned Ray and went looking for him, and when she didn’t find him she started saying your name and asking where you were.”

That sounds bad. That sounds very bad. He _knew_ Ray was planning something; he shouldn’t have allowed himself to get distracted.

He turns his full attention towards Maddalena, who’s looking at him with her lips pressed tightly and her arms crossed over her chest. She’d seem angry if her fingers weren’t digging into her arm with so much force that she’ll probably leave bruises.

She takes a shaky breath, points at Coach, then at her own eyes and says, “Ray?”

Coach shakes his head.

Maddalena bites her lower lip and, in a move Finnian believed no woman would ever perform outside of bad movies, sticks a hand down her cleavage and pulls out a cell phone. She taps at the screen for a few seconds and turns it towards Coach.

She’d written something on Google Translate. The translated sentence reads, ‘I can’t find Ray.'

Once again, Coach shakes his head. What had Ray done? Where had he gone to? Finnian should have kept Ray with him on the bench.

Maddalena starts cursing, or at least that's what Coach believes. He doesn't understand what she's saying, but judging by her tone, the way her fingers curl around her phone, and the way her free hand opens and closes into a fist, he’s willing to bet that what she’s saying is the sort of thing that would scandalize old people.

It only takes her a few seconds to calm down. She looks at Coach directly in the eye and says, in such a pleading tone that Finnian doesn’t need translation, “Aiutami, per favore."

Like he hadn’t decided to get involved in this as soon as he realized that something might have happened to Ray.

Coach nods. “Benny, come with us,” he says, and heads for the stairs.

Ray had been looking at one of the windows earlier. Coach isn’t sure whether this counts as a hunch or as an actual deduction, but he heads for the second floor, signals for Maddalena and Benny to be quiet, and starts checking the doors. It doesn’t take long to find one behind which voices can be heard.

“This isn’t a very well thought out plan.” That’s Ray. He sounds very unimpressed.

“Shut up, okay? Just shut up.” It sounds like a man, probably a young one.

“There’s no version of this in which you come out on top,” Ray says, calm and almost bored. “If you hurt me, someone will come after you sooner or later. If you insist on keeping up the bravado, you’ll force me to do something about it. If you don’t keep your side of the agreement, well…” There’s a pause. Coach can only imagine what face Ray is making to drive the point home. “It’s better for you to drop the knife, hand me that envelope, and leave.” There's movement inside the room. “I’ll even forget how rude you have been.”

Someone’s threatening Ray with a knife. That someone clearly doesn’t know who he’s messing with. Coach decides to gamble on Ray’s caution and turns the doorknob.

He’s barely started opening the door when he hears a thud and a groan, and by the time Coach has entered the room there’s a man (by a very generous definition of the term; he looks more like a kid playing pretend in a tux) bent over himself, a knife on the floor, and Ray’s getting up from a chair.

“What did I tell you?” he says to the man as he smooths down his clothes. There’s a cut on Ray’s forehead, right over his eyebrow, that’s bleeding too much, but he seems to be fine besides that. The man on the floor, meanwhile, looks scared.

Benny and Maddalena follow Coach into the room, and Ray directs a judging look at Maddalena, who ignores him in favor of kicking the knife out of reach.

“Please don’t kill me,” the man whimpers when Benny picks up the knife.

“Nobody’s going to kill you,” Ray says, exasperated. He crouches in front of the man and Coach stands behind Ray, ready to pull him back if it looks like the man wants to try something. “I’m still willing to forget that all of this happened if you give me the envelope and never cross my path again.”

The man looks from Ray to Coach to Benny, who at some point gave the knife to Maddalena and is standing defensively in front of her, while Maddalena holds the knife in a way that might fool someone into thinking she knows how to use it (but Coach knows about fighting and he can tell that this woman hasn’t held a knife in her life). He looks back at Ray and nods.

“I knew you could be reasonable if you put your mind to it,” Ray says, mocking, and stands up.

Slowly, the man stands on shaky legs and approaches the bed, grabbing a big envelope from it and handing it to Ray, who nods and simply watches the man.

“Won’t you open it?” the man asks nervously.

“You wouldn’t try to trick me, would you?” Ray says, raising an eyebrow. “I’m sure you’re smarter than that.”

His tone makes it clear that he doesn’t have any faith in this man’s cognitive abilities.

The man only nods and takes a step towards the door.

“You’re forgetting your money, Billy,” Ray points out, gesturing with his head towards another envelope that’s on the bed. The man directs a nervous look at it. “Come on, take it. We had a deal.”

The man grabs his envelope and almost runs out of the room.

“Please close the door,” Ray calls after him.

Once the door’s closed, Ray exhales heavily and lets himself drop on the chair he’d occupied earlier, letting the envelope he’d been holding fall to the floor. He looks at everyone and then removes his glasses to rub his eyes with his fingers, but he has to take his hand away when he realizes that he’s smearing blood over his face.

Without thinking, Coach grabs a handkerchief from his pocket and wordlessly hands it to Ray, who starts wiping his face clean. Coach keeps waiting for him to say something, to explain what the fuck just happened, but everyone stays quiet.

The silence is broken by Maddalena dropping the knife to the floor and sighing. “Ray,” she says in an even tone, “è sicura questa stanza?”

Ray quickly turns his head towards her, looking almost surprised by the question. “Yes.”

Maddalena nods and brings her hands up to her hair as she says, “You’ll have to help me put this back on when I’m done, Kitten.”

She has an accent. That’s all that can be said against her English. Coach stares at her. So does Benny.

She takes off her mask and moves to leave it on top of the bed. The most remarkable thing about her face is that her nose is too wide for her to be considered pretty, but the rest of her features are enough for her to be slightly above average. Nobody will be writing songs about this woman.

“What?” Benny finally asks. “You speak English?”

Maddalena makes a face. “I’m sorry. You can blame him,” she points at Ray, “for the deception.”

Benny turns towards Ray and gives him a questioning look.

“People relax when they think there’s someone around that doesn’t understand what they’re saying,” Ray says, pressing the handkerchief to the wound on his forehead. “We were trying to fool everyone, not just you.”

“Nothing personal,” Maddalena says, putting a foot on the bed and hiking up her dress to reveal one of her legs up to the thigh. The first thing Coach notices is that she has strapped a bunch of small plastic bags to her leg. The second thing he notices is that she has rather thick legs.

If his mother had heard him judge a woman like this, she would have yelled at him until her lungs gave up.

Ray’s watching Maddalena pick some things from the small arsenal she’d kept hidden with a look that holds only disbelief and not a hint of attraction, and which makes Coach feel shamefully relieved. Jealousy’s an ugly thing and he feels like he owes so many apologies to this woman that he wouldn’t know where to start.

“Mary, what the fuck?” Ray says flatly as Maddalena, or Mary, readjusts her dress.

“That’s what I want to know too,” Benny mutters.

“Well, Benny, you see,” Mary-or-Maddalena says, sounding very, very annoyed, “Kitten asked me to come with him tonight to help him with something, asked me to only speak Italian and to come up with a name for myself because he didn’t want anyone to be able to figure out who I was, and told me that what he had to do was a simple thing and that I shouldn’t worry.” She gives Ray a look that would have lesser men begging for forgiveness. “If there’s one thing I know, it’s that Fortuna loves to mess with his plans, so I came prepared.”

“Did you also bring a needle?” Ray asks, amused.

Mary-or-Maddalena raises an eyebrow. “Yes, Kitten, I did.” She sighs, removes her gloves, and starts opening some of the bags she left on the bed. “I even have a scalpel blade strapped to my other leg.”

Ray blinks and glances at her skirt. Maddalena heads to the bathroom and Coach hears water running.

“Ray, what the fuck was going on?” Coach asks. “Are you being blackmailed again?”

“ _Was_ being blackmailed,” Ray says, having the decency to look slightly ashamed. “It’s over now.”

“Really? Because five minutes ago you were being threatened with a knife.”

“Just a kid trying to get more out of the bargain.” Ray makes a dismissive gesture, takes the handkerchief away from his face and looks down at the blood on it, curling his lip in distaste. “He’d have surrendered even if you hadn’t entered the room.”

“You think? He looked scared, Ray." Finnian can hear his voice rising in volume. "Scared people do the dumbest shit.”

“I agree with _il tuo ragazzo_ here,” Mary-or-Maddalena says, stepping out of the bathroom with her hands dripping water everywhere. “That boy was ready to stab you, Kitten.”

Coach is about to add to that when he notices how Ray’s looking at Mary-or-Maddalena, something like hurt in the way his brow’s furrowed that makes Coach reach for his phone. She'd used those words earlier, hadn't she? Or something similar.

“You aren’t funny, Mary,” Ray says, folding the handkerchief and putting it in his pocket.

Coach opens Google Translate.

“Nothing I said was a joke.” Probably-Mary-and-not-Maddalena takes some small white envelopes from the bed and approaches Ray. “The second thing was a real possibility and the first thing is something I hope becomes reality. Positive thinking and all that, you know?” She opens one of the envelopes and takes a white square from it. “Be brave now, Kitten, this is going to hurt.”

Coach types ‘il tuo ragazzo’. Finnian stares at the translation.

Maybe he should have believed Ray when he introduced Probably-Mary as a friend. And when he said there was nothing between them.

“Can you please stop talking to each other and let us know what’s happening?” Benny asks.

Ray hisses when Probably-Mary presses the white square to the wound on his forehead. She only leaves it there for a moment before she lets it fall to the floor and opens another envelope, muttering under her breath, her brow furrowed and her shoulders tense. She looks so stressed that Finnian feels bad for her.

He puts his phone back in his pocket.

“There’s nothing else besides what we've already said,” Ray says, eyeing Probably-Mary warily. She’s still cleaning the wound. “That boy came into possession of a picture I didn’t want anyone to see, I offered to buy it, we agreed to make the exchange here, and he tried to get more than what we’d agreed on.”

“Which was already a lot,” Probably-Mary says sharply. She drops the second square to the floor and opens another envelope to continue the cleaning process. Despite her tone and the look on her face, her hands move carefully over Ray’s face, and just for that Finnian feels his goodwill towards her grow.

“Which was already a lot,” Ray repeats calmly.

“I told you this would happen,” Probably-Mary says, pointing an accusing finger at Ray. “I knew it the moment I saw him. I told you when we were dancing, then I told you in the garden, but did you listen? Of fucking course not, because you were so intent on-” She doesn’t finish the sentence, opting instead for letting out a sound of frustration and returning to the bed to pick up some gauze. “You better get your shit together,” she mutters under her breath as she returns to work on Ray’s wound.

Ray glances at Finnian, who gives him a small smile. Ray swallows and looks at Benny.

“The reason I brought…” He looks at Probably-Mary. “What should I call you?”

“Just use my name.” She pats the wound with a piece of gauze.

“Her name’s Tosca, but I call her Mary,” Ray says.

“Nobody else is allowed to call me Mary,” she warns.

Benny nods.

“As I was saying,” Ray says, “I brought Mary - Tosca - with me because she’s very good at reading people, and I was hoping she’d help me see if that boy was planning anything.”

“And then you went and ignored all my warnings.” Tosca leans back to direct the full force of her glare at Ray.

Finnian glares at him as well. Despite their different motivations, it's clear that he and Tosca agree on the goal of keeping Ray safe, and he figures he can show his support by helping her judge Ray.

“I’m sorry.”

“The only reason I’m forgiving you is because scared people do dumb shit.” She drops the dirty gauze to the floor. “I bet your brain flew out the door as soon as you saw-”

“Please don’t say it again,” Ray says, raising a hand in a gesture to make her stop talking.

“Then please solve your main problem.” She looks meaningfully at Finnian and then leans down to whisper something in Ray’s ear.

“Mary…” Ray says quietly, regret and sadness obvious in his voice.

“Didn’t you say that I’m very good at reading people?” She smiles, a small mischievous thing that matches the clever look in her eyes and which makes Finnian wonder what exactly it is that she knows and Ray doesn’t. “There are only two things in the world I’m not bad at, so… trust me on this.”

“You're terrible,” Ray says with no venom, leaning back on the chair.

Tosca picks up all the trash she’d dropped to the floor, as well as the long-forgotten envelope that caused all the trouble, which she leaves on the bed before heading for the bathroom. Once again, Finnian hears water running.

He decides to take a chance and moves closer to Ray, leaning down to inspect his forehead.

“Did you also bring her for her nursing skills?” Finnian asks to distract himself from how easy it would be to touch Ray now, from how he wants to put his arms around him and breathe in the scent of his skin. It also helps distract him from how angry he is at the whole situation. Shouldn’t Ray be smart enough already to get blackmailed? Who did he get killed now? Why isn’t Finnian running away?

“She’s a doctor, actually.” Ray smirks. “But she hates blood and sickness.”

“It’s the worst,” Tosca calls from the bathroom. “Do you know what happened the first time I had to stitch up a wound? I threw up.” The water stops running. “And my first time in an operating room? I fainted!” She steps out of the bathroom and grabs her gloves and mask from the bed. "But still this man expects me to be able to do doctor things, because he's the worst."

Benny steps towards her.

“Do you need help with that?” he asks, pointing at the mask.

Tosca blinks and stills in place, and it’s like every drop of confidence she’d had earlier has left her. She looks at Benny, who only waits, and finally she nods. After a moment, she says, “Yes, please.”

It takes her another moment to put the mask on and turn around so Benny can secure it at the back of her head. Finnian doesn’t miss the fact that Benny takes a chance to brush the back of her neck with his fingers. He looks at Ray to see if he noticed as well, and finds him with a raised eyebrow and his lips pressed tightly to suppress a smile. He seems to notice Finnian’s eyes on him because he tilts his head up and gestures with his head towards the scene unfolding in front of them, clearly entertained by it.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Benny says when Tosca has turned around again, “you and Mister Smith here are friends, right?”

She nods.

Ray snorts. “She’s single, by the way,” he says, and only smiles smugly when Tosca glares at him.

It occurs to Finnian that this might be payback for the ‘il tuo ragazzo’ thing.

“I’m probably too old for you,” Tosca tells Benny, who shrugs.

She looks at the floor and starts twisting her gloves in her hands.

“Why don’t you two go dancing?” Ray says, standing up from his chair to approach Tosca and put a hand on her shoulder. “I promised her she’d have fun tonight, but all I’ve done is stress her out.”

“Is that alright with you?” Benny asks Tosca, who blushes and nods, and then smiles _shyly_ when Benny offers her his arm. "Let's go, then."

“Have fun!” Ray says as they leave the room.

Before she steps out, however, Tosca turns around, points at Ray, and gives him a warning look.

Then she’s gone, and Ray’s sitting down heavily on the bed.

It's time to talk, isn't it?

"Why does she call you Kitten?" Finnian asks instead of all the things he actually wants to say.

At least it makes Ray laugh. "Because she hates that I call her 'Mary' and it turns out there's some cat called Raymond in a game, so..." He shrugs. "She's the worst too." Quietly, apologetically, he adds, “She shouldn’t have dragged you into this." He makes a face. “Then again, you weren’t supposed to be here tonight.”

“It was a last minute offer,” Finnian says, sitting next to Ray, leaving enough space between them that he won’t be tempted to lean against Ray. “Mal’s girlfriend is part of the kitchen staff and told us they were looking for people to work security.”

Ray blinks quickly and lets his shoulders drop. “At least nobody got hurt.”

“Would you actually have cared?” Finnian can’t help but ask.

“Do you think so little of me? Mary’s my friend, I care about you, and you care about Benny,” Ray says simply. “Of course I didn’t want any of you to get hurt.”

“That’s not what I-” Finnian shakes his head and licks his lips. “You care about me.”

Ray huffs good-naturedly and almost smiles. “I do.”

“Despite what happened,” Finnian says meaningfully.

Softly, Ray says, “I’m the one that kissed you, Finnian.”

“I kissed you back,” Finnian points out. He’d kissed him back eagerly and enthusiastically. He’d held Ray against him and licked into his mouth, had allowed himself to have what he’d been offered and forget for a minute that only a day before he’d told Ray that he hoped they’d never see each other again. He’d buried his fingers in Ray’s hair and held on tightly to the lapels of his coat because he’d known that he couldn’t keep this, so he might as well enjoy every second.

“I don’t hold that against you.”

Finnian looks at him i disbelief. “I kissed you back and then told you I wanted you out of my life.”

He’d kissed Ray back, fully believing that soon he’d be over it, and instead he’d found himself revisiting the memory so often than he was sure there was an entire part of his brain dedicated to ensuring that no detail was forgotten.

“You’d made it clear before that you didn’t want anything to do with me. I shouldn’t have kissed you.” He gestures vaguely with a hand. “You kissed me back because you found me attractive, or maybe because you wanted to know what it would be like to kiss me, or maybe because you were in a mood.” He shrugs. “Then you got your sense back and stuck by what you’d said before. I’ve done my best to stay as far from you as possible since then.”

Silence falls over them. Finnian thinks that, in a way, he has been offered a chance again, but he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do to take it. He’d assumed that Ray wouldn’t want to have anything to do with him ever again, but now it turns out that… What? What exactly? What happened tonight? The fact that Ray cares about him means something. The fact he’d seemed lost when he recognized Finnian earlier means something. The fact that they’re sitting here and that neither has tried to leave means something.

“Your friend, Tosca…” Finnian starts and waits.

“Yes?”

“I looked up that thing she called me. ‘Il tuo ragazzo.’”

Ray closes his eyes and looks annoyed. Since it doesn’t seem to be directed at Finnian, he decides to continue.

“Is there a reason your friend was referring to me as your boyfriend?”

“She really needs to learn to filter her words,” Ray says quietly. He opens his eyes and blinks quickly, nervously, and doesn’t look at Finnian.

He feels guilty for pushing. He’s not willing to stop.

“What did she tell you earlier? She whispered something to you.”

Ray looks at Finnian out of the corner of his eye. “She told me you needed to know why I was here tonight.”

“What you were being blackmailed with?”

Ray nods.

That’s too much. It’s not fair to Ray. Finnian can feel some of his earlier goodwill towards Tosca disappear. “Do you want to tell me?”

With a self-deprecating smile, Ray says, “No, but it’s your business, so I should.”

He grabs the envelope, inspects its contents, and hands it over to Finnian.

It’s a picture of them. Specifically, it’s a picture of them kissing, before it got desperate, before Finnian decided that it wouldn’t happen again and tried to have everything. In the picture, one of Ray’s hands is on Finnian’s waist and the other is cupping his face, while one of Finnian’s hands is on Ray’s chest and the other is making its way to rest on the back of Ray’s neck. The moment looks unbearably gentle.

“I didn’t think you’d want anyone finding any sort of link between us,” Ray says as Finnian studies the picture.

Finnian puts the picture back in the envelope and hands it back to Ray, who shakes his head.

“You should keep it. Consider it a goodwill gesture.”

“Thank you,” Finnian says, resting the envelope on his legs.

Silence again. The chance is still there, he knows it.

“What will you do now?” he asks.

“In the immediate future or in general?” Ray asks, giving him a puzzled look.

“Right now. Tonight.”

Ray narrows his eyes and studies Finnian for a moment before saying, “Mary’s probably down there trying not to combust now that there’s a man making her feel pretty.” He smirks. “She hasn’t had much fun since her divorce, so I guess I’m staying in this room until she asks me to take her home.”

“No more dancing for you, then?” Finnian says lightly, but giving him a meaningful look.

“Are you trying to lead up to some terribly corny gesture?” Ray says, clearly trying not to smile.

“Only if you let me.” Since Finnian doesn’t have any reason not to smile, he does.

Ray lowers his head. “What happened to not wanting anything to do with me?” he says seriously.

“That was before I spent months thinking about you,” Finnian admits. When Ray looks up at him in disbelief, he shrugs. “I felt like I gave up without trying. Maybe it would have been worth a shot.” He lifts the envelope with the picture. “Looking at this… we looked like a good thing, Ray.”

Slowly, Ray smiles. He stands up, extends a hand towards Finnian and says, “I guess I can dance some more.”

Finnian laughs and takes his hand.

And then, just so Ray knows that he was being serious, he kisses him.

It’s slow, it’s gentle, and, most importantly, it feels like the beginning of a good thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this story; if you did, kudos and comments are always appreciated.
> 
> If you want to say hi or something, you can find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Vetoing_Clocks).
> 
> I hope you have an excellent day!


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